1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a method of and apparatus for disintegrating lumps of boiled rice while cooling and freezing and, more specifically, it relates to a method of and apparatus for disintegrating lumps of boiled rice in which lumps of boiled rice are disintegrated by one or plurality of rice disintegrators each comprising a combination of a rotary comb and a stationary comb disposed above the track of a belt conveyor that passes through a cooling chamber and a freezing chamber while carrying the lumps of rice thereon.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Demands for frozen-dry products of boiled rice as preserved foodstuffs have been increased in more recent years as the cooking material for instantly cooking pilaff or the like. For the production of frozen-dry rice of this kind, a method of and apparatus for freezing and disintegrating boiled rice has been disclosed, for example, in Japanese Pat. No. 1177102, which comprises passing a belt conveyor carrying boiled rice thereon through each of chambers equipped with spontaneously cooling, pre-cooling and freezing respectively and beating the lumps of rice carried on the belt conveyor in the chambers by the teeth of a rotary comb placed above the track of the belt conveyor, thereby disintegrating the lumps of rice while cooling and freezing them.
However, in this proposed method and apparatus, since the lumps of rice carried on the belt conveyor are disintegrated merely by the beating action of the rotary comb teeth, it has been difficult to effectively apply the beating impact to the lumps of rice and, accordingly, the lumps of rice can not finely be disintegrated into individual rice grains but only into smaller sub-divided lumps each comprising rice grains atiched with each other. The commercial value of the frozen-dry rice will be degraded by the incorporation of such sub-divided lumps, because they bother the cooking work and impaire the taste and feeling when served as they are to the table.